Lord, Let Glasgow Flourish by the preaching of Thy Word and the praising of Thy Name
OCTOBER 2014
INSIDE
Consolation
page 3
SCIAF vision
pages 6–7
Mongolia
mission
pages 10–11
JOURNAL OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF GLASGOW
70p
Creeping euthanasia fuelled by
culture of greed, warns Pope
POPE FRANCIS has
warned of a “hidden euthanasia” taking hold in
society through the
abandonment and neglect of the elderly.
And he has described as
“poisonous” the throwaway
culture of economic greed
which has made it acceptable
for the weak and vulnerable to
be seen as a burden.
His withering criticism reflects growing unease at the
way governments pit young
against old in drawing up
budgets and spending plans.
Instead, Pope Francis has
urged the young to regard the
elderly as their allies and a
source of wisdom whenever
they are disheartened.
“A people who don’t take
care of their grandparents and
don’t treat them well is a people with no future,” the Pope
said. “They lose the memory
of the past and they sever their
own roots.”
He added: “We discard children, young people and older
people under the pretense of
maintaining a ‘balanced’ economic system, the centre of
which is no longer the human
person, but money.”
Urging people to “counter
this culture of poisonous
waste”, he called for a more
welcoming and inclusive society which measures success
on how the weak are cared for.
Pope Francis noted that not
all older people have a family
which can take care of them.
Care homes, he said, provide a great service so long as
they are “truly houses, and not
prisons” where people are forgotten, hidden, or neglected.
The Pope’s forthright remarks came during an encounter with some 40,000
elderly people and grandparents in St Peter’s Square who
gathered on Sunday 28
September under the banner
‘The Blessing of a Long Life’.
Among those present was
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI
whom Francis described as
being like “a wise grandfather
at home”.
Loretto house party
Preserve
He added: “Older people,
grandparents especially, have
an ability to understand the
most difficult situations. And
when they pray about these
situations, their prayers are
strong and powerful.”
Underlining the value of old
age, the Pope described it as
“a time of grace” to preserve
and transmit the faith, and to
pray for and be close to those
in need.
Grandparents, who have
been “blessed to see their children’s children” are entrusted
with the task of sharing their
wisdom, conveying experience of life, the story of their
family and community, he
said.
The gathering was timed to
coincide with a day of prayer
Our Lady of Loretto Primary in Dalmuir marked its 40th
anniversary with a Mass of Thanksgiving after which
pupils joined Archbishop Tartaglia and head teacher
Margaret Kowal in cutting their celebration cake
Picture by Paul McSherry
for the synod on the pastoral
care of the family taking place
from 5–19 October in the
Vatican – with Archbishop
Philip Tartaglia representing
the
Scottish
Bishops’
Conference.
It also highlighted the
trauma and distress caused to
elderly people who are among
the most vulnerable and helpless in areas of conflict and
war.
Married for 51 years with
10 children and 12 grandchildren, Mubarak and Aneesa
Hano told of how they were
chased out of their home in the
Mosul area of Iraq by Islamic
State militants.
Scattered
“The cities are empty,
homes destroyed, families
scattered, the elderly abandoned, young people desperate, grandchildren cry and
lives are destroyed from the
terror of the shouts of war,”
Mubarak said.
In his wisdom, he expressed
the hope that the world would
finally learn that “war truly is
insanity”.
Noting the faith of the elderly couple – now refugees in
Erbil – Pope Francis likened
them to “trees which continue
to bear fruit,” as thy witness to
the memory of their people
even amid the most difficult
trials.
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OCTOBER 2014 • FLOURISH
NEWS
diary
Archbishop’s
OCTOBER 2014
Thursday 2nd to Saturday
4th – Plenary Assembly of
the Council of the European
Conferences of Bishops,
Rome
Sunday 5th to Sunday 19th –
Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on Pastoral Challenges of
the Family, Rome
Saturday 25th – Mass for the
Bicentenary of Don Bosco’s
birth, St Andrew’s Cathedral
(1pm); Knights of St
Columba banquet (7pm)
Monday 27th – St Peter the
Apostle High School award
ceremony (7pm)
Tuesday 28th – Mass marking retirement of Charles
Rooney, Headteacher of Our
Lady and St Patrick’s High
School, Dumbarton (7pm)
Thursday 30th – Meeting of
the Finance Council of the
Bishops’ Conference (11am)
Friday 31st – Mass at
Carmelite Convent, Dumbarton (12.30pm)
Forty
hours
adoration
Sunday 5th October
Our Lady & St George,
Penilee
St Dominic’s, Bishopbriggs
Sunday 19th
St Robert’s, Househillwood
Sunday 26th
St Conval’s, Pollok
St Joseph’s, Faifley
New post for Sr Rita
Archbishop thanked for Unity role
Sister Rita Dawson
has been elected to
lead the Scotland and
England province of
the Religious Sisters
of Charity.
ARCHBISHOP
Mario
Conti has received a
message of thanks
from Pope Francis for
his 30 years of service
to the Church in the
area of promoting
Christian unity.
She will combine her
commitments with her duties as chief executive of St
Margaret of Scotland
Hospice in Clydebank
where she has been based
for the past 30 years.
In her role as provincial,
Sr Rita will undertake visitations of the institute’s
houses and accompany
each sister as they carry out
their various pastoral and
care ministries.
While best known in
Scotland for their hospice
ministry – St Andrew’s,
Airdrie, as well as St
Margaret’s – the Religious
Sisters of Charity are also
involved in education, so-
cial care, prison visiting,
caring for women in prostitution and safe housing for
victims of trafficking.
They also engage in parish
ministry and hospital chaplaincy.
Next year marks the
200th anniversary of the
founding of the institute by
Mary Aitkenhead.
She was spurred into devoting her life in service of
the poor by the conditions
she encountered in her native Ireland at the beginning of the 19th century.
The message was relayed
by the Secretary of State,
Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
along with a letter from
Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting
Christian Unity.
“It is with thankfulness
that our Pontifical Council
joins the Holy Father in
recognising your most valuable collaboration and contribution to our work in
fostering the commitment of
the Catholic Church to the
pursuit of dialogue and
communion,”
Cardinal
Archbishop Conti with Joint Working Group in 2003
Koch Picture
stated. caption
In response, Archbishop
Conti said: “Membership of
the Council has been an
enormous privilege, and has
enabled me during these
same years to serve the
cause of Christian unity in
Scotland and throughout the
United Kingdom.”
From 1995 to 2006, the
Archbishop was co-moder-
ator of the Joint Working
Group of the World Council
of Churches and the Roman
Catholic Church.
In that role, he led the
Holy See delegation at the
General Assembly of the
World Council of Churches
in Harare in December
1998, reading out the fraternal message of Pope John
Paul II.
Jubilee priests – Thank you for persevering
BETWEEN them they have
given a combined 775
years of ministry as
priests of the Archdiocese of Glasgow.
From diamond to silver, the
jubilarians of 2014 have shone
out in the service they have
given in parishes across the
diocese and further afield – including Peru, Bangladesh and
Arran.
At a Mass of Thanksgiving
in St Andrew’s Cathedral,
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia
congratulated the priests on
their assorted milestones and
thanked them for their commitment and devotion over
many years.
“On behalf of the whole
Glasgow’s oldest traditional
manufacturing silversmith
archdiocese, I thank you for
your perseverance through
times of joy as well as through
moments of struggle,” he said.
Although not all were able
to be present at the Mass, this
year’s jubilarians are:
60 years: Fr Chris
Gilfedder, Fr Gus Hurley,
Mgr Des Maguire, Fr Joe
Murphy and Fr Noel Murray.
50 years: Fr Noel Colford,
Mgr Gerry Fitzpatrick and Fr
Willy Slaven.
40 years: Frs Father
Michael Conroy, Dermot
Healey, Willie Monaghan,
Anthony
Sweeney
and
Michael Woodford.
25 years: Mgr Hugh
Bradley, Frs John Carroll,
John Gannon, Joseph Mackle
and Neil McGarrity.
Picture by Paul McSherry
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FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
ON the feast of the Birth
of the Virgin Mary, it was
fitting to hear the Salve
Regina sung at the end of
Mass.
But voices broke with emotion as the congregation at Our
Lady of Consolation turned to
her statue – gifted by the nuns
of Stanbrook Abbey when the
parish was founded in 1966 –
and sang the anthem the
Church uses to mark the end
of the day.
For the night of 8
September marked the closure
of the church that has stood as
a distinctive landmark in
Govanhill for over four
decades. The last liturgical act
provoked its own ‘vale of
tears’.
The large congregation
gathered around Archbishop
Philip Tartaglia and the priests
who had concelebrated the
Thanksgiving Mass.
They included Mgr Jim
Ryan, an assistant in the early
days of the parish, Fr Joseph
Walsh, parish priest for four
years, and Fr Neil Donnachie
parish priest of Holy Cross
with which OLOC merged as
a parish in 2004.
In
his
homily,
the
Archbishop shared the emotion felt at the closure of the
church which had served the
people of Govanhill since
1971.
“The church is a sacred
By Vincent Toal
space and its presence in our
community is more than the
sum of its parts, more than architecture, more than we can
articulate – and for that we
give thanks,” he said.
Built on the site of the
Majestic cinema which had
been adapted to serve as a
makeshift church in the
parish’s first three years, the
Inglefield Street building is set
to be demolished.
Over the past ten years, it
has been the base for the archdiocese’s youth pastoral work
and, for a shorter period, home
of the arts project AGAP. Its
hall, beneath the church, was
also a popular space for social
gatherings – as reflected at the
buffet following the closing
Mass.
NEWS
Gathering for
the last time at
Our Lady of
Consolation
Picture by Paul
McSherry
Farewell to OLOC
and St Ronan’s
Bonhill
While parishioners of Holy
Cross came together for their
parish feast – the Exaltation of
the Cross – on the Sunday following the closure of
Consolation,
Archbishop
Tartaglia was with another
parish community marking
the end of an era.
On Sunday 14 September,
the final Mass in the parish of
St Ronan’s, Bonhill, was celebrated in the school of the
same name across the road
from the church which was
destroyed by fire three years
ago.
The final Mass in OLOC
The parish, which was
founded in 1973, is about to
merge to become part of Our
Lady and St Mark’s,
Alexandria – although it has
been served recently by Fr
John Mulholland based in St
Martin’s, Renton.
“As bishop, I want to acknowledge St Ronan’s parish
community in the best way I
can, and that is my purpose in
being here today – to pray
with you, to be sad with you,
to be thankful with you, to be
hopeful with you and to encourage you for the future,”
Archbishop Tartaglia told the
congregation gathered in the
school gym.
He urged them not to lose
heart but to take courage and
hope from the day’s feast.
“We believe in Christ’s
death and resurrection,” he
stressed. “We are strengthened by the sacraments and
nourished at Holy Mass by the
Eucharist. We are called to
love one another and to serve
the poor and needy.
“This is true in whatever
church building we worship
and to whatever parish grouping we belong.”
With words pertinent to the
whole archdiocese as future
pastoral provision is assessed,
Archbishop Tartaglia added:
“We need buildings and
parishes and organisation, but
we cannot get too hung up on
structures.
of the Church in different
ways.”
The Archbishop assured the
people of St Ronan’s that their
name and history will not be
forgotten.
“With St Ronan’s, another
parish will be extended and
enlarged,” he pointed out.
“But not just extended in
numbers and area, but enhanced qualitatively and spiritually with your presence,
your families and your children – above all, by your faith
and love.
“So I invite you to go forward and make a new community fit for the service of
God.”
Reality
“When they no longer serve
or when they are no longer
feasible, we need to develop
new structures, go new places,
move to face new challenges.
“We have too much to do to
mourn for familiar things. We
need to recognise our own reality, face the present and look
to the future. The Lord is
beckoning us forward.
“This is our current reality
in this diocese and in many
places in the church. Like
never before in my lifetime,
the Catholics of this diocese
are a pilgrim people, on a
journey which will mean embracing and expressing the life
St Ronan’s parishioners with the Archbishop
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Moira adds Scottish voice to top theology panel
A Glasgow-born grandmother and moral theologian has become the
first ever Scot appointed
to the Vatican’s International
Theological
Commission.
Moira Mary McQueen is director of the Catholic
Bioethics Institute in Canada
where she has lived for the
past 40 years.
As a member of the ICT she
will assist the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith in
looking at a range of theological issues over the next fiveyear term of the commission.
A former pupil of Notre
Dame High and graduate in
law from Glasgow University,
the then Moira McBride married fellow Glaswegian and
3
graduate in medicine Matthew
McQueen in St Aloysius,
Garnethill.
The couple already had
three young sons when they
moved to Nova Scotia in
1974. They later moved to
Ontario where, with an ever
expanding family, they became involved in marriage
preparation, natural family
planning and pro-life work.
Amid much heated debate
around abortion and other life
issues, Moira started studying
theology at St Michael’s
University in Toronto. She
went on to gain a doctorate in
moral theology a year after
giving birth to her seventh
child.
Since then she has combined family life with teaching
theology and deepening her
understanding in key areas of
Christian ethics and social justice.
“As a laywoman and educator, I am fortunate to be able
to share whatever knowledge
I have in the realm of
bioethics and sexual ethics for
the good of individuals and for
the community,” she explained recently.
“I am glad to be able to use
my voice in the Church, and
even more glad that I paid attention to that voice that
prompted me to pursue theology, to develop my relationship with Christ.
“Nothing gives me more
pleasure than helping other
people to ‘see’ things in matters which before were unclear
to them, or to dispel some of
the doubts that exist about the
Church’s teaching, doubts that
are sometimes so completely
unfounded!”
Now a grandmother, Mrs
McQueen is one of five
women on the 30 strong theological commission which
will meet for the first time in
December.
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4
OCTOBER 2014 • FLOURISH
NEWS
Lecture to honour
Dr John Durkan
THE centenary of the
birth of one of Scotland’s
distinguished
most
Catholic teachers and
historians, the late Dr
John Durkan, is being
marked with a lecture in
his honour at Glasgow
University.
Professor Sir Tom Devine
will deliver the lecture, titled
The Durkan Achievement, on
Monday 27 October.
Born in Shettleston on 3
September 1914, Dr Durkan
made an enormous contribution to the life of the Catholic
Church in Scotland, through
his ground-breaking historical
research on the Scottish renaissance and Reformation period.
He was a founding member
of the Scottish Catholic
Historical Association and his
many articles populate the
pages of the Association’s
journal, The Innes Review.
The lecture is being sponsored by the St Andrew’s
Foundation of Glasgow
University and the Newman
Association.
“Amongst other interests,
Dr Durkan made a seminal
contribution to our understanding of the origins and
early years of the University
of Glasgow,” said Leonard
Franchi, head of St Andrew’s
Foundation.
“His posthumously published Scottish Schools and
Schoolmasters 1560–1633 is
a model of patient, unstinting
scholarship which underscores once again the extent of
the debt owed by historians to
Dr Durkan who died in 2006.”
■ Prof Devine’s lecture begins at 5.15pm in the Sir
Charles Wilson Lecture
Theatre at 1 University
Avenue.
Sisters Loreto, Ann and Teresa with Archbishop Tartaglia, Fr Euan Marley, Fr Allan Cameron and Deacon Jim Dean
Picture by Robert Wilson
Dominican Sisters depart
AFTER nine years based
in St Charles’, Kelvinside,
the Dominican Sisters of
St Catherine of Sienna
are departing Glasgow.
Although their sojourn was
short, the Sisters made a big
impact in parish ministry, university chaplaincy and religious education.
That contribution was acknowledged by Archbishop
Philip Tartaglia when he
joined the community of St
Charles for Mass on Sunday
21 September.
“It’s always good to have
Sisters in a parish community,”
he said.”It’s always sad when
they leave. But people remain
deeply grateful for their presence, and that is certainly the
case here at St Charles.
“So, for being here in this
Archdiocese, for the work
they have done in various contexts, and for sharing the life
of the local Church, on behalf
of the Archdiocese and of this
community, I sincerely thank
the Dominican Sisters.
“I wish them all every
blessing and happiness in
whatever work they are now
called to do for their congregation and for the Lord.”
Sister Ann Cunningham,
the Prioress of the congregation based at Bushey, north
London, joined the Glasgow
community of Sisters Teresa
and Loreto for the farewell
Mass. Sr Teresa has been
longest at St Charles having
set up the community with Sr
Laurentia, Sr Kate and Sr
Karen in 2005.
At a time of uncertainty, as
the parish lost its resident priest
and sought to discern its future,
the presence of the Dominican
Sisters proved a stabilizing and
life-enhancing force.
Fr Allan Cameron, who has
pastoral care of St Charles,
said: “The Sisters have been a
great blessing not only for St
Charles,
but
also
St
Columba’s and the wider
Archdiocese.”
The closure of the Glasgow
community means the Sisters
can concentrate their UK presence in the greater London
area. They also have communities in South Africa and a
house in Rome.
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FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
NEWS
Referendum highlights poverty concern
IN the wake of the referendum on independence,
Archbishop
Philip
Tartaglia has expressed
his fears at seeming
growing
disparities
within Scottish society.
While the majority of voters
elected to stay within the
United Kingdom, many of the
country’s most deprived areas
– including Glasgow, West
Dunbartonshire and North
Lanarkshire – backed independence.
Along with Inverclyde –
which narrowly voted ‘No’ –
these council areas also boast
the highest percentages of
Catholics (between 27 and 37
percent), which may or may
not have had an influence on
local results.
Whatever, it prompted
Archbishop Tartaglia to express a “sense of unease” at
why the clear majority of voters in Glasgow and surrounding areas had “a markedly
different view of the future”
from much of the rest of
Scotland.
“Sadly, too many of our fellow citizens of this great city
of Glasgow appear to feel disenfranchised by the political
By Vincent Toal
process, and feel threatened
and disheartened by poor life
chances and by indecent levels of poverty and deprivation,” the Archbishop stated.
“I think that was what the
referendum voting figures for
Glasgow may have been
pointing to.”
He added: “I am sure that
this will not be lost on the City
Fathers and on our political
leaders, who, I know, want the
best for Glasgow.
“I hope and pray that they
will be able to secure a new
political consensus which
gives the people of Glasgow
more hope and confidence for
the future, regardless of the
constitutional settlement.”
Engaged
This point was reflected in
a statement issued by the
Scottish Bishops in the immediate aftermath of the result on
Friday 19 September.
“The vast majority of Scots
engaged with the referendum
and it is our hope that we can
all now cooperate for the benefit of our nation in future,”
they noted.
The bishops urged the
George Square swamped with goodwill groceries
Disgust
whole Catholic community to
“continue to engage in public
debate and decision-making”
while upholding the “meaning
and importance of the
Christian message”.
While issues of social justice and inequality were given
little air time during TV debates, pollsters believe they
had a significant influence on
many voters.
A measure of this was
demonstrated in the wake of
the result, with thousands of
people covering George
Square with bags of groceries
in response to an impromptu
appeal from foodbank charity
Glasgow’s Needy.
Set up last year by father
and son, Andrew and Darren
Carnegie, in response to the
poverty witnessed among
their neighbours in Glasgow’s
east end, the operation has
been swamped by goodwill.
“We started talking about
our foodbank and the plight of
poverty in the city, things we
had seen,” said Andrew, after
their first city-centre appeal on
20 September.
“It got a spontaneous reaction – people started going to
nearby shops, buying food and
bringing it to the square. It
created a snowball effect.
First final profession in over 30 years
Fr Pat Duffy places crown of
thorns on head of Frank Trias
Frank with Passionist confreres and clergy friends
“It’s been overwhelming
and shows the true side of
Glasgow, what we’re actually
all about.”
The initial collection was in
response to the violence which
took place in the city centre on
the Friday night following the
referendum when loyalist
mobs ran amok.
HIS was the first final profession hosted at St Mungo’s, Townhead, in
over 30 years.
But, as a newly consecrated member of the Passionist congregation,
Frank Trias is hopeful the next will not be so far away.
“The soil is ready for tilling and if you put time and resources into
cultivating vocations then the fruits will appear,” he said.
Frank, 30, first encountered the Passionists when his home parish of
St Stephen’s, Sighthill, became part of St Mungo’s.
“I was at that stage as a teenager when I could easily have walked
away, but there was something about the Passionist charism, the
community and preaching which attracted me and held my interest.”
From involvement with Passionist youth groups and going on retreat,
Frank eventually discerned his vocation in the congregation whose
special charism is to ‘preach Christ crucified’.
The radical nature of this calling was illustrated at his profession on
Sunday 14 September – the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
As the cross was placed on his shoulders and a crown of thorns on
his head by Fr Pat Duffy, the provincial for Ireland Scotland, Frank was
invited to deny himself and remember that “you are clothed in the
Passion and Death of
Christ”.
Afterwards, he thanked
the Passionist community
for accepting him as a
brother and all who have
supported him, especially
his mother Catherine and
late father Juan, who died
last year, and parishioners
of St Mungo’s and St
Andrew’s, Bearsden, where
his mother now lives.
This month, Gareth
Thomas, who was also
introduced to the
Passionists at St Mungo’s,
will be ordained to the
priesthood having made his
final profession in Ireland,
last year.
Pictures by Robert Wilson
Now, the initiative has been
extended to allow people to
express their solidarity with
the most impoverished and to
demonstrate disgust at the political system which has exacerbated inequality.
The food and other items
will be shared with foodbanks
across the city or distributed to
households where need is
identified.
5
THE whole is greater than
the part, but it is also
greater than the sum of its
parts.
There is no need, then,
to be overly obsessed with
limited and particular
questions.
We constantly have to
broaden our horizons and
see the greater good
which will benefit us all.
But this has to be done
without evasion or
uprooting.
We need to sink our
roots deeper into the
fertile soil and history of
our native place, which is
a gift of God.
We can work on a small
scale, in our own
neighbourhood, but with a
larger perspective…
The global need not
stifle, nor the particular
prove barren.
From Evangelii Gaudium
A DAY WITH THE CARMELITES
18th October 2014
St. Paul’s Parish, Shettleston
1653 Shettleston Rd G32 9AR
10am–4.30pm
Soup and hot drinks supplied
Please bring your own packed lunch
Suggested donation for the day: £7.50
Exploring together the life and work
of St.Teresa of Avila.
Archdiocese of Glasgow
Autumn Liturgical
Music Workshops
Our Lady and St George’s Parish halls,
Sandwood Road, Penilee G52 2QE.
Following on the workshops for cantors and parish musicians
last Spring we are organising another set to be held in Our Lady
and St George’s Parish halls, Penilee. This church and halls provide more space, and we are inviting people to come for an initial session so that we can more accurately identify the wishes
and needs of each prospective participant.
Enrolment and personal ‘what I am looking for’ session:
Thursday, 9th October – drop in between 7.00 and 8.30.
We will look over short Services for St Andrew’s Day, for Those who
Mourn, for Peace, Evening Service for Advent, and material for The
Jesse Tree.
Workshop 1:
Thursday,
23rd October
Workshop 2:
Thursday,
30th October
Workshop 3:
Thursday,
6th November
Workshop 4:
Thursday,
13th November
Please contact: Jane McKenna at
[email protected] or Fr Fitzpatrick at [email protected]
Or tel 0141 427 0293
or 01355 220613
name:
parish:
email:
tel:
cantor / organist / instrumentalist
– delete as appropriate
Donation £10.00
These other workshops are from 7.00
– 9.00.
How to get there: The Nº 9 (First Bus) and Nº 38 (McGills) will take you
from town along Paisley Road West to the corner of Crookston/Sandwood Rd. Nº
9A (First Bus) from City Centre to Hillington Rd — back of the church. Nº 7
(McGills bus) from Partick to the corner of Crookston/Sandwood Rd. Train from
Central Station, Paisley Canal Line to Crookston, turn left out of station and cross
Paisley Rd West and the church/hall is a short walk on your right.
6
OCTOBER 2014 • FLOURISH
FOCUS
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Work together for good of
all and challenge injustice
ONE of the most important things I have learnt
from my 18 years of
working in developing
countries is just how
much the people we
work with overseas have
to teach us.
In Rome, working for the
Caritas Internationalis network of Catholic international
aid charities – which SCIAF is
a part of – I frequently led the
Church’s emergency response
in places like the Philippines,
Darfur, Haiti and Sri Lanka
after the Tsunami.
In the aftermath of the
Gujarat earthquake in India in
2001, I remember walking
into a village that had been
very badly damaged.
A group of four Dalit
women sat outside their destroyed home, and I was
struck by how full of joy and
hope they were only four days
after such a catastrophe.
Already, they were looking
ahead.
If ever I’m feeling overwhelmed by the emergencies
I face, my memories of these
ladies gives me strength and
helps keep my problems in
perspective.
Let’s be honest, it can be
easy to slip into a simplistic
view of our relationship with
our brothers and sisters living
in poorer countries.
Because we give money and
provide material support we
risk falling into the trap of
thinking we have all the answers, know what’s best, and
reduce them to merely ‘people
in need’.
An outdoors’ enthusiast, ALISTAIR
DUTTON has hit the ground running
since becoming Director of SCIAF, in
early August. Here, he takes time to
catch breath and reflect on his
personal journey and how people can
work together to overcome extreme
poverty and injustice
This does a great disservice
to them, to us, and to the
Church’s teaching.
In my mid 20s, I spent time
as a Jesuit novice which is
when I first came to Scotland.
For a few months, I worked at
St Margaret of Scotland
Hospice in Clydebank before
joining the Jesuit Refugee
Service in Nepal.
should help each other to fulfil our potential.
Not a question of simply
giving people a hand out, but
in the spirit of equality, solidarity and love, standing
shoulder to shoulder with
those in need, giving them a
hand up.
Guided by this principle, I
try to live my faith in a practi-
A bridge which connects the
tenderness of the Church in
Scotland to people overseas
Through these experiences,
my understanding of Catholic
social and moral teaching,
particularly the principle of
subsidiarity, grew.
Basically, this calls us to
work with people, to help
them raise the issues affecting
them and make their own decisions about their future and
the path they wish to take.
It is based on the truth that
created in the image and likeness of God we are all equal
with intrinsic human dignity,
and that as a community we
cal way each day.
This also impacts on how I
see the role of SCIAF as part
of a big Caritas family in the
global Church – including our
community here in Scotland –
and those we work with overseas.
SCIAF is a bridge which
connects the tenderness of the
Church in Scotland to people
overseas who struggle with
the hardships of hunger,
poverty, war and disasters.
We do this in a spirit of
equality and solidarity so that
the poorest amongst us can
rise up and God’s kingdom
can be realised.
It is about partnership. Just
providing material aid is not
enough.
In the wealthy developed
countries like Scotland and the
wider UK, where much power
and influence is held, it also
means we must stand with
those who have less.
Pope Francis has led the
way in restating this demand,
promoting greater awareness
of social justice.
“We can no longer trust in
the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market,” he
has pointed out. “Growth in
justice requires more than economic growth.”
The unrestricted power of
the ‘free market’, which is so
dominant today, needs to be
addressed if we are to create a
more just world for all.
We need to look at how our
society and behaviour often
supports the economic structures that keep one in eight
people in our world hungry.
Based on the experience of
our partners in developing
countries, a recent SCIAF report highlighted that business
An eye-witness account of Caritas Jordan
Festival House, 177 - 179 West George Street, Glasgow G2 2LB
Telephone +44 (0) 141 248 8111 Fax +44 (0) 141 221 8420
E-mail [email protected]
Earlier this year, STEPHEN MURRAY, a
parishioner of St Andrew’s, Bearsden, and
retired eye surgeon, visited Jordan to see
how Syrian refugees are being supported
through SCIAF with whom he is a volunteer
Children cared for at Our Lady of Peace Centre
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We have a wide range of MENUS including Buffets and Finger Buffets
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On my visit, I saw the
refugee crisis first hand
and how Catholic aid
agencies are helping people who have had no alternative but to leave
their homes in Syria with
nothing but what they
could carry.
Donations from Scotland
have helped Caritas Jordan to
establish a reception centre
where refugees can access
medical care and dental clinics. They provide legal services and help with permits and
passport applications.
They also give out food
vouchers and help with housing for refugees who are not in
camps. In the winter blankets,
mattresses and heaters are also
given out to the most vulnerable.
I was profoundly impressed
by the Caritas staff who handle a massive amount of work
to help the ever growing number of refugees.
Suhad Zarafili, a community centre manager, introduced me to Ahmed, who was
at the medical clinic to get
pre-natal care for his pregnant
wife.
Before the war began,
Ahmed worked in a TV satellite business in Homs.
“I was beaten by government security forces who suspected me of supporting the
rebels,” he said.
Caritas Jordan helped
Ahmed and his wife get tem-
FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
FOCUS
As rebuilding work goes on in the Phillipines after last year’s typhoon, smiles return to young faces
can bring positive benefits to
poor communities by providing employment and generating tax to pay for services like
health and education.
However, all too often,
when left to their own devices,
big businesses can have negative impacts which harm people’s human rights and destroy
our environment.
That’s why the report called
for greater transparency from
businesses on their impact in
developing
countries.
Thousands of supporters
joined us in calling for our
newly elected Members of the
European Parliament to make
this happen.
Unfortunately, the problem
of global poverty is complex
and we need to act on many
fronts.
This includes working directly with communities so
they can grow enough food to
eat and earn an income to
cover basics like education
and healthcare for their children.
It also involves acting here
in Scotland to challenge the
political and economic structures that promote inequality
and injustice.
We should also look at our
The problem of global
poverty is complex and we
need to act on many fronts
own lifestyles, the resources
we use, where we spend our
money and weigh-up the impact it can have on people in
developing countries.
As an integral part of the
Church, SCIAF is dedicated to
working with parishes and
schools in Scotland, and the
many people we work with in
Africa, Asia and Latin
America.
In my first few weeks, I
have been reflecting more on
SCIAF’s role in the life of the
Church in Scotland and how it
helps us all to connect people
to those we work with overseas, and visa versa, so that we
can form genuine human relationships.
As I start out on this journey, I want to meet and get to
know people in our parishes,
the children in our schools and
everyone who makes our
work possible.
I sincerely hope that, together with our brothers and
sisters overseas, we can all
help to create a more just
world for all.
by clothes pegs – but they are
safe and are given support.
Among them, refugees
trained in engineering and
pharmacy spoke of their frustration at not being able to
work. “We came here for two
months,” they said. “That was
two years ago.”
Thousands are still streaming out of Syria as the conflict
continues. Their needs remain
critical.
Many poor Jordanians are
also suffering due as jobs,
housing and access to healthcare are all limited. Caritas is
also helping them with food
and other aid.
Generous donations from
Scotland have made so much
possible, but with no end to
the war in sight, the life-saving work of SCIAF and its
partners in Jordan and
Lebanon needs to continue.
in action
porary residency permits and
access to food supplies.
I travelled 20 miles from
Amman and visited Our Lady
of Peace Centre, where
Caritas look after children,
many of whom have been
traumatised by the terrible acts
of violence they have either
suffered or witnessed.
The centre also deals with
children with special needs,
both physical and psychological. Their drawings of planes
carrying out bombing raids revealed their inner trauma.
In a building supervised by
the Syrian Orthodox Church, I
visited eight families who
share two rooms.
Privacy is in short supply –
the family sleeping areas are
separated by blankets held up
7
Tough skin needed when
asking searching questions
“An authentic faith always
implies a deep desire to
change the world,” said Pope
Francis, earlier this year, in a
sermon in Rome.
In Glasgow Archdiocese
the work of Justice and
Peace tries to address this
challenge at a local level.
It encourages people to see
that it is a part of their
Catholic faith to desire a
better world and to take
action to help bring that
about.
Of course, a lot of people
take practical steps to effect
change, often forming an
organisation around which
action can be better directed.
Food banks, the Saint
Vincent de Paul Society, The
Mungo Foundation, the
Cardinal Winning Pro-Life
Initiative are just a few of
the numerous local agencies
helping to feed the hungry,
provide clothing and other
necessities for the poor,
assisting the weakest and
most vulnerable in our
society.
These are practical and
very necessary tasks.
Justice and Peace works
in parallel with these kinds
of organisations, but its
emphasis is slightly
different.
Its role is to examine and
to raise awareness of the
causes of poverty, the roots
of injustice, the factors which
are responsible for conflict or
the absence of peace. And
yes, to try to effect change.
Our focus can range – as it
has in the past few months –
from participating in the
Easter Witness against
nuclear weapons at the
Faslane submarine base,
engaging with people during
the Commonwealth Games to
raise awareness about
human trafficking and
slavery, to praying for peace
in the Middle East.
Our inspiration is Catholic
Social Teaching, that
wonderful guide which
reminds us of the dignity of
every human person. We
have this dignity because we
are created in the image and
likeness of God.
There are many factors
which ignore, harm and
destroy this dignity – poverty,
slavery, violence, capital
punishment, racism, abortion,
euthanasia, homelessness,
war.
It is the desire to challenge
and to change these which
motivates the work of those
involved in Justice and Peace
within parishes and across
the diocese.
We are well aware that
Justice and Peace can be
annoying. It can stop us in
HONOR HANIA, secretary of the Archdiocese of
Glasgow Justice and Peace Commission, reports
on its aims and work
our tracks, force us to think
more about how we do
things.
Take trade justice. We
may appreciate the
arguments but will I go the
extra mile and change how I
shop.
If a product is cheap, it
often comes at a cost – paid
by those working in
sweatshops or labouring in
fields for a pittance.
This is what Justice and
nurture of life, are crying out
for resources, do we continue
spend billions on a nuclear
weapons system which
would destroy our lives and
our planet?
On the environment – are
we seriously doing enough to
prevent the destruction of the
God-given resources meant
for everyone?
Justice and Peace can be
seen as a bit of a nuisance
because it asks people to
This year’s Easter Witness at Faslane was
addressed by Archbishop Tartaglia
Peace tries to highlight, to
show that it is incompatible
with our faith and our calling
as Christians to ignore and –
in some cases – connive with
the injustices and
exploitation in which many of
our fellow human beings live
and work.
Justice and Peace can be
viewed with suspicion. That’s
because it’s in the business
of asking searching
questions.
Remember what the
Brazilian Archbishop Dom
Helder Camara said – When I
give food to the poor, they
call me a saint. When I ask
why they are poor, they call
me a communist.
He upset people because
he asked awkward questions
and the easiest retort was to
dismiss him with a personal
slur. It’s the tactic of the
playground bully – playing
the man, not the ball.
It requires a tough skin,
but Justice and Peace
shouldn’t duck the tough
questions for fear of being
unpopular. So, it’s right to
ask:
Why do we, living in one of
the richest countries in the
world, have so many people
relying on food banks?
Why, when our public
services, especially those
concerned for the care and
examine their perceptions.
If you still read daily
newspapers or view TV, you
could be forgiven for thinking
Britain is overrun with
asylum seekers and that we
accept more than any other
country. Not so.
A little bit of investigation
shows that Germany, France
and Sweden all accept more
asylum applications than the
United Kingdom, as do many
other countries across the
world.
Justice and Peace
encourages people to dig a
bit deeper, to question easy
assumptions and expose lazy
journalism.
It is not comfortable and
can be hard going. We all
lead busy lives, and
sometime it’s just easier to
ignore things, to leave it to
others.
We put money in a
collection and hope that we
have made things a bit better
by doing so. And we have.
But then we hear the
words of Jesus: ‘Truly I tell
you, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers
and sisters of mine, you did
for me.’
Who are the least? We are
challenged to seek them out
and make them our first
concern.
8
OCTOBER 2014 • FLOURISH
FEATURE
Rejection inspired Covenant of Love
WAR was already being
waged in north-west Europe
in the autumn of 1914 when
an unassuming German
priest, still in his 20s, formed
a sodality of prayer which,
100 years later, has grown
into a global spiritual family.
“A child of war” is how Fr
Joseph Kentenich later
referred to the Schoenstatt
Family which grew out of the
Covenant of Love which he
embraced with students from
the Pallotine seminary, where
he was spiritual director.
Offering themselves
completely to Mary, the
mother of Jesus, many of the
students were called up to
the battlefield where, even in
the trenches, they strived to
witness to God’s abiding love.
The original shrine at
Schoenstatt
From destruction and
desolation of the battlefield,
the Schoenstatt movement
has helped restore hope and
give fresh vitality and
purpose to the millions of
people who have entrusted
themselves to the Covenant
of Love or simply find peace
and solace entering the
distinctive Schoenstatt shrine
replicated around the world.
The original shrine, where
the sodality first met, was an
abandoned chapel being used
as a tool shed – now it is a
place where so many find
rest from their labours.
Fr Kentenich’s vision grew
out of his own experience of
abandonment. He was the
child of a single mother. His
father never acknowledged
him. At the age of nine, his
mother put him into an
orphanage.
It was out of this feeling of
rejection and loneliness that
he eventually learned to
entrust his life completely to
God through Mary.
That trust was sorely
tested through
misunderstandings,
jealousies and outright
hatred.
He was detained by the
Gestapo in September 1941
and sent to the Dachau
concentration camp where he
THE name Schoenstatt
means ‘beautiful place’.
remained until April 1945.
After the liberation of
Dachau, Fr Kentenich
continued his work in
building the Schoenstatt
Family around the world.
At this time, the movement
was coming under suspicion
within the Church and in
1951, Fr Kentenich was
ordered to leave Schoenstatt
and spent the next 14 years
in exile in Milwaukee, USA
On Christmas Eve in 1965,
he returned to Schoenstatt
where he spent the last three
years of life supporting and
encouraging those who
sought his spiritual counsel.
He died on 15 September
1968, the Feast of the Seven
Sorrows of Our Lady. His
tomb bears the inscription
Dilexit ecclessiam – He loved
the Church.
‘A Welcoming Space in the Heart of the City’
2014/15 Programme
RETREATS
The Bield at Blackruthven, Tibbermore,
Perthshire, 14th–17th October 2014.
A silent mid-week individually guided retreat,
led by a Team from the Ignatian Spirituality
Centre, in the beautiful Perthshire autumn
time. Retreatants have access to The Bield’s
excellent facilities which include a chapel, art
room, swimming pool, labyrinth and extensive
grounds. Accommodation is in single rooms
(max 9 retreatants). Please book via the Ignatian
Spirituality Centre for this retreat.
EVENTS:
Inter-Faith Dialogue: A series which has been
set up to foster understanding and respect
among people of faith that will inspire that
mutual respect and understanding that fosters
peace. Please see our website for dates and
themes.
Autumn Walk: A reflective walk exploring the
themes of the season led by Susan Mansfield.
Sat 11th Oct, 1.30pm
DROP-IN EVENTS:
Dancing in the Spirit: Led by Sr Isabel Smyth.
Normally 1st & 2nd Mondays of each month,
7–8.30pm
Eat, Pray, Breathe: a quiet half hour each
Tuesday, 1–1.30pm, to pause and reflect
First & Fourth Fridays: Peaceful mornings for
reflection with gentle input and space,
10am–1pm
Taizé: a quiet hour to pray with Taizé chants
with periods of silence, 3rd Monday of each
month 7.30–8.30pm
Carers Renewal Afternoons: an afternoon for
carers to be refreshed and renewed, 1.30–4pm
on the last Tuesday of each month
A place of beauty wh
Friday Film Club: an opportunity through film
for individuals to access and nourish their
spiritual life thus deepening their relationship
with God. 1st Friday of the month, 2pm or
6.30pm
Book Club: an opportunity for individuals to
nourish their spiritual lives by reading and
reflecting together. 1st title is: God in All Things
by Gerard W Hughes SJ. 1st Thursday of each
month (Oct–June) at 2pm
Crafting for the World: Join us in creating
crafts, knits, blankets, simple clothing, etc to be
used by people in need such as elderly and third
world groups. 1st Tuesday of each month,
2–4pm
Please check time, dates and further information
on our website or contact the Centre.
NB: All of the above do not take place in July &
August
COURSES – 2014 – 2015
Growth in Prayer and Reflective Living
This course looks at different ways of praying
and becoming aware of everyday life as full of
resources to strengthen ourselves and others in
our relationship with God.
Spiritual Conversation
This course is complete in itself. It is intended
to enhance listening skill and awareness of
God’s presence in the many contacts and
conversations we have in our day to day lives.
Inter-Faith Dialogue:
A series which has been set up to foster
understanding and respect among people of
faith that will inspire that mutual respect and
understanding that fosters peace. Please see our
website for dates and themes.
Our New 2014–2015 Programme is available by post or downloadable from our website, www.iscglasgow.co.uk, which
has more information on the events, course and retreats. For bookings or a copy of the programme contact:
The Administrative Secretary, Ignatian Spirituality Centre,
35 Scott Street, Glasgow, G3 6PE • Tel 0141 354 0077 • Fax 0141 331 4588
e-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.iscglasgow.co.uk • Registered Charity SC 040490
And you would be hard
pressed to come up with a
more apt description of the
spot where for the past 25
years Schoenstatt Scotland has
made its home.
Nestling at the foot of the
Campsie Fells, set within mature woodlands, with paths beside the flowing burns, it is a
haven of peace, a place of rest
and sanctuary of prayer.
Most beautiful of all, perhaps, it is just a short journey
from the centre of Glasgow.
Which is the journey, Sister
Margareta Bittner made with
her fellow Sister of Mary, Sr
Xavera, on 27 January 1987 –
the exact date is imprinted on
her memory.
“We had been tasked with
finding a suitable place where
we might be able to build a
shrine,” Sr Margareta explained. “We had looked a
various options and discounted them. This was our
last go – the mystery house.
“It was a real dreich day
and, as we came up the drive
all we could see was a ruin. I
said, ‘That’s it!’ Straight away
I saw the potential.”
After some fraught negotiations, the Sisters acquired the
former Campsie Glen Hotel
site and set to work creating
By Vincent Toal
the distinctive Schoenstatt
Shrine, dedicated to the
Blessed Trinity and Our Lady.
They erected a simple wayside shrine, signaling their intent, before the little chapel
took shape and was blessed on
16 September 1989 – 25 years
later it is still the most
northerly Schoenstatt Shrine
among some 200 around the
world.
The Schoenstatt Sisters of
Mary came to Scotland in
1962 at the request of the
German bishops to work
among the German expat
community. They made their
home in Glasgow on Langside
Drive, from where they travelled the length and breadth of
the country fulfilling their initial mission.
ciation with Glasgow.”
That association includes Sr
Mary Elsbeth Owens – who
joined the Sisters in 1983 and
shares the daily tasks of welcoming visitors, handling enquiries and offering retreats –
and Fr Michael Savage, a
member of the Schoenstatt
priests’ institute.
It was on condition that they
restored the old hotel building
– part of which dates back
over 200 years – that the
Sisters acquired the site.
“Against the accepted wisdom, we decided to create a
retreat centre which was
opened on 14 May 1995.”
Convinced
Gradually they attracted a
mix of women, men, families
and young people to the spirituality of the movement which
eventually convinced them of
the desirability for a shrine to
cement their presence.
“In our haste to secure the
Campsie Glen site, we didn’t
realize it was within the
Archdiocese of St Andrews
and Edinburgh,” Sr Margareta
confessed. “But we have always retained our strong asso-
Sisters Margareta, Mary Elsbeth and Cla
Mary, Ann Marie, Jacoba, Iona and Eleao
Cushley who led the Silver Jubilee celeb
Mariapolis – Competing
IN mid August, I attended
the summer gathering of
the Focolare movement
in Perthshire.
More widely known as the
‘Mariapolis’ – which means
‘City of Mary’ – it gathers
people of all ages and from
various walks of life.
Many travel great distances
and the rich diversity of languages and cultures coming
together for a short time epitomises a little bit of ‘Heaven
on earth’.
I like to think of this as my
Teresa Costello, a parishioner of St
Joseph’s, Cumbernauld, reports from
Mariapolis – a pop-up town in Perth
annual retreat-holiday.
It provides space for me to
develop my relationship with
God, looking at where I am in
my Holy Journey. I believe
that we are all pilgrims travelling towards our home which
is in the bosom of God Our
Father, who loves each and
every one of us with a unique
love.
But the Mariapolis is about
so much more than just myself.
Each one is there to deepen
our shared purpose to ‘love
one another as I have loved
you’ – Jesus’ greatest commandment.
From the start, we all enter
into a race to compete in
‘being the first to love’. This
could be in fetching someone
a cup of tea, helping with lug-
FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
FEATURE
9
here peace is found
“It was Christmas 1965 just
after he returned from exile
and I was privileged to be at
Midnight Mass which he celebrated at Schoenstatt,” she
said.
“It was a most beautiful gift
to spend half-an-hour with
him. He was interested in
knowing me and thanked me
for giving my life to serve the
Church’s mission.”
She describes Fr Kentenich
as a “heart specialist” – someone who understood people
inwardly – and suggests this is
the charism of Schoenstatt –
helping people know themselves inside out.
Graces
aire with other Schoenstatt Sisters of
onora together with Archbishop Leo
brations
“Every shrine is built on
three graces: a home where
people find shelter; a place
where they can change – become a better person; and an
experience they want others
to share – the apostolic mission dimension”
Although a little hidden,
people find their way to
Schoenstatt Scotland from all
over the world.
Some are part of the international Schoenstatt Family,
often young people coming
to walk the West Highland
Way. But most are parishioners from surrounding
towns and cities, making the
journey by car or on the 85
bus from Glasgow city centre.
“People drive in before
heading to work every day.
They just want a little time to
pray, to gather their thoughts
and this is a great place to do
that,” Sr Margareta attested.
“The setting is beautiful, but
it is more than that. You feel a
burden coming off your shoulders. It is a place where people find peace and where they
keep returning to.”
As well as dropping in for a
short visit – perhaps for daily
Eucharistic adoration and devotions
at
3.30pm
–
Schoenstatt’s 30-bed retreat
house offers an idyllic spot to
get away for an overnight or a
few days’ rest. Guided retreats
and meditation are all part of
the service that is offered.
When he helped form the
Covenant of Love, a century
ago, Fr Kentenich’s desire
was to form people and communities interiorly, personally
deciding for God, so that they
could bring Christ’s love to
others.
Schoenstatt carries on this
vision of forming hearts to reveal God’s beauty within.
■ A play on the life of Fr
Kentenich, written by Stephen
Callaghan, is being performed
by AGAP in parishes across the
archdiocese in late October
and early November.
g to be the first to love
gage, arranging accommodation, or transport.
We depend on the generosity of each person willing to
share their talents, experience
and material goods in order to
make it possible for those less
fortunate to be able to come.
And come they did. Some
550 people from across
Europe, the Middle East,
Africa, and all parts of the
UK. Each of us had our own
story of how we came to be
present in the Mariapolis, and
enjoyed sharing with newfound friends.
Throughout the week mutual love grew in depth, as we
listened to meditations and
real life experiences on topical
issues: transforming society,
caring for people at the end of
life, the value of suffering in
our lives, the ups and downs
of family.
Among the more relaxing
workshops were African
dance, hair-braiding, social
media, music and art, as well
as the chance to explore the
beautiful countryside.
In the evenings there was
time to share a meal and relax
in each other’s company. By
the end, we all felt part of ‘one
big family’.
Throughout the week, I was
reminded once again that in all
the situations I find myself in
I only have to put love behind
every action, thought or word
and in this way God will transform the world in ways I cannot even imagine.
This is the realisation I
wake up with every morning,
enabling me to greet the day
with joy and enthusiasm as I
continue to thank God for the
‘wonder of my being’.
Pilgrims gather round the shrine at Campsie Glen
for the Silver Jubilee on Sunday 7 September
Picture by Paul McSherry
Parishioners like these from
Old Kilpatrick are always welcome
The wayside shrine which
marked the Sisters’ arrival
in 1989
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Sr Margareta’s easy recall
of dates reflects the commitment she has made to
Schoenstatt Scotland as well
as the wider movement. She
joined the Sisters in 1962,
making her contract with the
community and consecration
to God two years later –
golden jubilee celebrations
have taken place in Scotland
and back home in Germany.
Before arriving in Glasgow
in 1986, she had spent 20
years in South Africa – a journey which began with a neverto-be forgotten meeting with
Schoenstatt’s founder Fr
Joseph Kentenich.
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OCTOBER 2014 • FLOURISH
VOCATIONS
Thinking about Life Choices?
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A growing Church in
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Email: [email protected]
And when the prefix
‘Outer’ is added, it becomes
almost extraterrestrial.
Hemmed in between Russia
and China, this land of nomadic herdsmen is home to a
small, but growing Catholic
community.
The land of Genghis Khan
and the Gobi Desert is the new
‘periphery’
where
the
Church’s mission is taking
root.
After decades of struggling
in a communist ruled country,
with no religious freedom, it is
only recently that the people
of Mongolia, the world’s
youngest Catholic Church,
have had the opportunity to
hear the Good News of Jesus
Christ.
Grown
Wenceslao Padilla, a missionary priest from the
Philippines,
arrived
in
Mongolia with two fellow
priests just over 20 years ago.
By proclaiming and sharing
their faith through spiritual
and practical outreach including education, medical care
and vocational skill training
programmes, the missionaries
have slowly built up the
Church.
From fewer than 100
KILLING in the name of
God is sacrilege, and religious leaders must denounce the use of faith to
justify violence and oppression, Pope Francis
said during a one-day
visit to Albania.
In a world where an authentic religious spirit is being perverted
and
religious
differences distorted and exploited, the Pope held up
Albania is an “aspiring exam-
!
"
! "#$
Catholics, the community has
grown to almost 1000. More
missionary priests arrived
from different countries, including South Korea and
Vietnam, along with Sisters
from various congregations.
Fr Padilla is now a bishop
overseeing the country-wide
Apostolic Prefecture (it is not
yet a diocese) from his base in
the capital Ulaanbaatar.
The cathedral is shaped as a
traditional ger, the round tent
dwelling familiar across this
vast land. Signifying unity,
community and harmony, the
ger chapels stand as a symbol
of how the Catholic faith is already being inculturated in a
sensitive and gentle manner
into the Mongolian way of
life.
Bishop Padilla is committed
to reaching out and offering
practical and spiritual support
to all who seek it.
He said: “Reach out, give
life. It summarises everything
that I want to do as a priest, as
a bishop, and as a Christian –
to reach out to others.
“Pope Francis is very strong
on this, ‘Go out, go there and
do something for the people
especially the poor’. That’s
what I want to do, reaching
out to people, to the poor, give
life.”
Bishop Wens Padilla accepts the gifts at Mass in Ulaanbaatar
Learning about the people’s
culture, their ancient spiritual
beliefs and traditions, and
learning their language are all
part of the Church’s outreach.
Connect
Because the Catholic
Church in Mongolia is so
young, there are not yet any
Mongolian-born priests or sisters, so trained local catechists
are also critical in helping to
spread the Good News.
Thanks to the catechists, the
Gospel is being inculturated
into the life, language and
mentality of the Mongolian
people, helping them connect
with the Catholic faith in a
way that is relevant and meaningful to their own culture.
Mission Matters Scotland
has chosen the young Church
in Mongolia as the focus of
this year’s Mission Sunday
appeal.
National director Fr Tom
Welsh said that 1100 local
churches around the world are
dependent on support from the
wider Catholic community to
help bring the Good News of
Christ to all.
“Your generosity makes it
possible for missionaries,
priests, catechists and pastoral
workers to reach out in the
name of Christ to communities in desperate need,” he
added.
That appeal was echoed by
Bishop Padilla in Mongolia –
which no longer appears so far
away.
“We still need the support
of foreign agencies, and I’ll be
happy if the Catholic Church
Albania emerging from dark days of atheism
By Maria Gilmore
Pope Francis and
Fr Simoni embrace
ple” to everyone that peaceful
coexistence is possible.
No one should “consider
themselves to be the ‘armour’
of God while planning and
carrying out acts of violence
and oppression,” he said.
Pope Francis said he chose
to visit the Balkan nation
because
the
peaceful
collaboration between its
Muslim-majority population
and minority Catholic and
Orthodox communities is a
“beautiful sign for the world”.
“It’s a signal I want to
send,” he said, that religion,
far from causing division, is
the very foundation of freedom and brotherhood.
The papal visit – the first of
Pope Francis to a European
country outwith Italy – reflected Albania’s emergence
from decades of totalitarian
dictatorship under state atheism.
Despite the risks of torture,
imprisonment and execution,
people held onto their faith,
praying and passing on their
traditions underground.
Hearing of such atrocities,
recounted by 84-year-old Fr
Ernest Simoni in Tirana’s
cathedral, brought the Pope to
tears.
The priest spent nearly 30
years in prison work camps,
where he suffered continual
physical and psychological
torture because he refused to
denounce the church.
When the atheist regime fell
in 1991, he immediately went
back to his ministry, urging
feuding Christians in mountain villages to embrace God’s
love and let go of hatred and
revenge.
Pope Francis responded to
the moving testimony, saying
the intense courage and humility shown by the priest and
other victims of the dictatorship showed that the only way
to find the strength to survive
such brutality was in God.
Young people made up a
large part of the jubilant
crowds of some 300,000 who
turned out to welcome the
Pope.
Lemida Zogu, a young
woman
from
northern
Albania, said: “Our parents
had to pray in secret, and we
learned from them there is no
life without Jesus.”
www.franciscanvocations.org.uk
FOR WOMEN
EXPLORING
FRANCISCAN
VOCATION
FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
VOCATIONS
11
‘I will build my Church’
The joy of being sent
difficult terrain
Pope’s Mission Sunday message
Hardy faithful gather
outside the ger chapel in
Arvaiheer
in Scotland will be able to address some of our financial
needs,” he said. “I am appealing to our generous, philanthropic people of Scotland to
come to our aid.”
■ THANKS to the spiritual and practical
outreach of faithful missionaries, every year,
more and more Mongolians hear the Good
News of Jesus Christ, and are baptised.
Gantulga’s family is just one Mongolian
family whose lives have
been dramatically
transformed after
accepting Jesus into their
hearts.
He and his wife
Uurtsaikh and their
children live in the rural
town of Arvaiheer, some
300 miles from the capital
Ulaanbaatar.
The family first learned
about the Catholic Church
when they moved to the
town after tragically losing
all their livestock almost
ten years ago. They were
Gantulga and Uurtsaikh with their young children
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one of a few lucky families to be given a new
ger – a traditional Mongolian round tent
dwelling.
While Uurtsaikh and the children started
attending activities run by the church,
Gantulga was haunted by his alcoholism and
his destructive behaviour.
He said: “Before in my life, I made a lot of
mistakes and I was addicted to alcohol and I
had problems with violence, not
understanding, misunderstandings with other
people.
“When I started going to church and feeling
how God’s mercy reaches me, I felt that I had
to receive baptism.”
The mission in Arvaiheer is served by
Consolata Missionaries priests and sisters.
As well as a range of catechesis and
Scripture study programmes for adults and
children, they have helped develop self-help
groups, after school clubs and social care
initiatives from their Mother of Mercy centre.
WORLD Mission Day is a
privileged moment when
the faithful engage in
prayer and concrete gestures of solidarity in support of the young
Churches in mission
lands.
It is a celebration of grace
and joy.
The Evangelist tells us that
the Lord sent the seventy-two
disciples two by two into
cities and villages to proclaim
that the Kingdom of God was
near, and to prepare people to
meet Jesus.
After carrying out this mission, the disciples returned full
of joy – joy is a dominant
theme of this first and unforgettable missionary experience.
The disciples were filled
with joy, excited about their
power to set people free from
demons. But Jesus cautioned
them to rejoice not so much
for the power they had received, but for the love they
had received, “because your
names are written in heaven”.
The disciples were given an
experience of God’s love, but
also the possibility of sharing
that love. And this experience
is a cause for gratitude and joy
in the heart of Jesus.
The joy of the Gospel fills
the hearts and lives of all who
encounter Jesus. Those who
accept his offer of salvation
are set free from sin, sorrow,
inner emptiness and loneliness.
With Christ joy is constantly
born anew. The Virgin Mary
had a unique experience of this
encounter with Jesus, and thus
became ‘cause of our joy’.
The disciples received the
call to follow Jesus and to be
sent by him to preach the
Gospel, and so they were
filled with joy.
Why shouldn’t we too enter
this flood of joy?
The great danger in today’s
world, pervaded as it is by
consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a
complacent yet covetous
heart, the feverish pursuit of
frivolous pleasures, and a
blunted conscience.
Humanity greatly needs to
lay hold of the salvation
brought by Christ. His disciples are those who allow
themselves to be seized ever
more by the love of Jesus and
marked by the fire of passion
for the Kingdom of God and
the proclamation of the joy of
the Gospel.
All the Lord’s disciples are
called to nurture the joy of
evangelization.
Fervour
Many parts of the world are
experiencing a dearth of vocations to the priesthood and the
consecrated life. Often this is
due to the absence of contagious apostolic fervour in
communities which lack enthusiasm and thus fail to attract.
The joy of the Gospel is
born of the encounter with
Christ and from sharing with
the poor.
I encourage parish communities to live an intense fraternal life, grounded in love for
Jesus and concern for the
needs of the most disadvantaged.
Wherever there is joy, enthusiasm and a desire to bring
Christ to others, genuine vocations arise. Among these
vocations, we should not overlook lay vocations to mission.
World Mission Day is also
an occasion to rekindle the desire and the moral obligation
to take joyful part in the mission ad gentes.
Is God calling you
?
to a life of silence and solitude
within a community of fellow seekers?
The Cistercian monks at Nunraw Abbey
offer such an opportunity.
With them you can praise God
through the psalms and liturgy
at set times during the day.
You will have time to study the ways
of God and to meet God in your
lectio divina. And, you will find work
that will keep body and soul together.
If you have good reason to believe
God may be calling you
to be a monk, write to:
Vocation Director, Nunraw Abbey
HADDINGTON, EH41 4LW, Scotland
Or email: [email protected]
Scottish Charity No SCO22611
5RPDQ &DWKROLF SULHVWV DQG EURWKHUV VLQFH Let us not allo
allow
w ourselv
ourselves
elves to be rob
robbed
bed of
fraternal
love.
the ideal of fr
aternal lo
ove.
Pope
P
ope Francis
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12
OCTOBER 2014 • FLOURISH
NEWS
Vatican
highlights
terrorism
causes
Alex Black
FUNERAL CARE
IN an address to the UN
Security Council, the
Vatican Secretary of
State said global cooperation in the fight against
terrorism “must also address the root causes,”
upon which terrorism
feeds.
While denouncing the “the
dehumanizing impact of terrorism fueled by violent extremism”, Cardinal Pietro
Parolin stated: “The present
terrorist challenge has a strong
socio-cultural component.
“Young people travelling
abroad to join the ranks of terrorist organizations often
come from poor immigrant
families, disillusioned by what
they feel as a situation of exclusion and by the lack of integration and values in certain
societies”.
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added: “To prevent citizens
from becoming foreign terrorist fighters, governments
should engage with civil society to address the problems of
communities most at risk of
radicalization and recruitment
and to achieve their satisfactory social integration”.
The Cardinal affirmed the
“grave responsibility” people
of faith have to condemn those
who seek to detach faith from
reason and use faith as a justification for violence.
Lebanese archbishop
to visit Scotland
THE plight of vast numbers of people fleeing
persecution in the Middle
East and what should be
done to help them will be
the core questions addressed at an event in
Scotland led by an archbishop from Lebanon.
Aid to the Church in Need,
the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering
Christians, will welcome
Archbishop Elias Nassar to
Motherwell, on Thursday 9
October.
The Maronite-rite Catholic
bishop of Saida, Lebanon, will
give his account of what is
being done to help refugees
flooding in at record levels
from war-torn Syria and Iraq
Amid growing concerns
about the survival of
Christianity in the region, the
archbishop will set out the
Archbishop Elias Nassar
vital need to help the faithful
whose roots go back to earliest times.
The evening begins with
Mass in Motherwell’s Our
Lady of Good Aid Cathedral
at 6.30pm.
Afterwards, there will be
talks from Archbishop Nassar
and Neville Kyrke-Smith,
National Director, Aid to the
Church in Need UK.
ACN’s Head of Operations
in
Scotland,
Lorraine
McMahon, stressed the significance of Archbishop Nassar’s
visit.
She said: “Archbishop
Nassar will provide the audience with a real and personal
connection to one of the
world’s biggest crises.”
In Iraq, killings and abductions by the Islamic State militants are mounting after they
issued a stern warning
Christians to convert to Islam
or be killed.
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch
Louis Raphael I Sako of
Baghdad has highlighted the
severity of the persecution
suffered by Christians and
other faith communities but
stressed: “There is still hope
for the Christians in Iraq but
only if we act now.”
Picture: Ritchie Greig (Scottish Lieutenant), Monty d’Inverno, Archbishop Mario Conti,
Bishop Joseph Toal, Tony Graham and John Kane
Picture by Paul McSherry
Knights invested on
silver anniversary
THE investiture of three new members into
the Scottish Lieutenancy of the Equestrian
Order of the Holy Sepulchre marked the
25th anniversary of the Lieutenancy’s
foundation.
Tony Graham (Bishopbriggs), John Kane
(Dumbarton) and Monty d’Inverno
(Edinburgh) were welcomed to the order at
a ceremony in St Andrew’s Cathedral,
Glasgow, on Saturday 6 September.
As spiritual director of the Scottish
Lieutenancy, which works to support the
Church in the Holy Land, Archbishop Mario
Conti invested the new knights in their
white robe marked with the distinctive red
cross of Jerusalem - a square cross with
smaller crosses in each quarter,
representing the five wounds of Christ.
In 1989, when the Scottish branch of the
worldwide order was formed, the then
Bishop of Aberdeen was invested as one of
the founding members.
From an original group of 12, the
Lieutenancy has now grown to 125 Knights
and Dames.
In his homily during the Mass of
investiture, Archbishop Conti linked it to the
two main themes of the Order’s mission –
personal spiritual development and support
for the Church in the Holy Land.
At a vigil service in the cathedral the
previous evening , the candidates made a
solemn promise to uphold the values of the
Order.
FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
FOCUS
13
Wanted: a Synod to affirm good of marriage
Ahead of the much anticipated Synod on the
Family, leading commentator GEORGE WEIGEL
warns of pitfalls while emphasising the positive
IN my view, the Synod should
focus on two related themes:
marriage culture is in crisis
throughout the world; the answer to that crisis is the
Christian view of marriage as
a covenant between man and
woman in a communion of
love, fidelity and fruitfulness.
To focus the conversation elsewhere is to ignore a hard fact and a
great opportunity.
The collapse of marriage culture
throughout the world is indisputable.
More and more marriages end in divorce, even as increasing numbers
of couples simply ignore marriage,
cohabit and procreate.
The effort to redefine “marriage”
as what we know it isn’t, and to enforce that redefinition by coercive
state power, is well-advanced in the
West. The contraceptive mentality
has seriously damaged the marriage
culture, as have well-intentioned but
ultimately flawed efforts to make divorce easier.
The sexual free-fire zone of the
Pray Rosary for family
THE whole Church has been
invited to accompany the
Synod of Bishops in prayer.
And, as October is
traditionally the month of the
Rosary, parishes and families
have been asked to take time
each day to offer the prayer
which meditates on Jesus’ life
and mission through the eyes
of his mother.
When she appeared to the
children of Fatima in 1917, Our
Lady asked people to pray the
Rosary for the conversion of
sinful hearts and for peace.
Pope Francis has also asked
that this prayer to the Holy
Family be offered:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendour of true love,
to you we turn with trust.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion
and prayer,
authentic schools of the
Gospel.
May families never again
experience violence, rejection
and division:
may all who have been hurt or
scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.
May the Synod of Bishops
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and
inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.
West is a place where young people
find it very hard to commit to a lifelong relationship that inevitably insacrificing
one’s
volves
“autonomy.”
And just as the Christian understanding of marriage is beginning to
gain traction in Africa, where it is
experienced as a liberating dimension of the Gospel, European theologians from dying local churches
are trying to empty marriage of its
covenantal character, reducing it to
another form of contract.
Gravity
Rome, we have a problem.
Pope Francis understands the crisis of marriage culture in its multiple dimensions, just as he
understands that the family, which
begins in marriage, is a troubled institution in the post-modern world;
that’s why he’s summoned two
Synods on the topic of the family.
And that’s why the Synod, fully
aware of the gravity of the situation,
should begin, continue and end on a
positive note, offering the world a
pearl of great price: the Christian
understanding and experience of
marriage.
The Synod discussion, in other
words, should take the crisis of marriage and the family as a given and
then lift up Christian marriages,
lived faithfully and fruitfully, as the
answer to that crisis.
The Synod should begin with
what is good and true and beautiful
about Christian marriage and
Christian family life, and show, by
living examples, how that truth,
goodness and beauty respond to the
deepest longings of the human heart
for solidarity, fidelity and fruitful
love.
It’s quite obvious that the Church
faces real pastoral challenges in
dealing with broken marriages and
their results.
But to begin the discussion of
marriage and the family in the 21st
century there is to begin at the
wrong end of things.
For it is only within the truthabout-marriage, which was given to
the Church by the Lord himself, that
compassionate and truthful solutions
to those pastoral problems can be
found.
The Synod might also do well to
reflect on another piece of good
news: the Church has far more tools
with which to try and help fix what’s
broken in 21st-century marriage culture than it did 40 years ago.
John Paul II’s Theology of the
Body has given Catholicism the
world’s most compelling account of
sexuality and its relationship to marriage: a vision of the nobility of
human love that is far more attractive than anything on offer in
Playboy and Cosmopolitan.
And John Paul’s teaching is having an impact—it’s hard to find a
college or university campus today
that doesn’t have a Theology of the
Body study group, often self-organized by students.
We’ve also come a long way
since “marriage preparation” involved choosing music and quarreling with the pastor about
rice-throwing on the church steps.
Couple-to-couple marriage prep is
a major development in alert diocese
and parishes, and a great expression
of Pope Francis’s call that all
Catholics understand themselves as
missionary disciples.
So, message-to-Synod: think positive.
Pupils of St Francis’ Primary pray the Rosary
at Afternoon with Mary in Duns Scotus
Picture by Paul McSherry
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IT’S always useful to
know where we are in
the Sunday Gospels at
any given time – near the
beginning or, as this
month, nearing the end
of Jesus’ ministry.
Sometimes, it’s important
also to know where a gospel
passage is set physically. This
is very much the case in the
weeks ahead.
Jesus has entered Jerusalem
and is teaching in the Temple.
The setting makes his words
all the more striking, as his
teaching involves him in dispute with the chief priests and
Elders, Scribes, Pharisees and
Sadducees.
These religious leaders who
ruled the Temple roost all try
to discredit Jesus’ teaching; all
fail miserably.
In the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus stated that he
had come not to abolish the
Law and the Prophets, but to
fulfil them.
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In these final stages of his
ministry, he demonstrates in
the very heartland of the religious
leadership,
the
Jerusalem Temple, the true
meaning and purpose of the
Law.
5 October
Sunday 27 (Year A)
Matthew 21:33-43
The heightened drama of
Jesus arrival in Jerusalem is
reflected in the intensity of the
encounter between him and
the religious leaders.
This famous parable, about
the owner of a vineyard who
lets it out to tenant farmers
who are not prepared to pay
the returns due to him, leads to
a very pointed conclusion in
the hands of the evangelist
Matthew.
Like the versions in Mark
and Luke, Matthew leads the
reader to the conclusion that
the parable is directed against
the religious leadership of the
time, but in Matthew alone
Jesus asks the chief priests and
the elders of the people what
the owner of the vineyard will
do to those tenants to reject so
thoroughly the approaches of
those whom the owner sends
to them.
The leaders reply “He will
bring those wretches to a
wretched end and lease the
vineyard to other tenants who
will deliver the produce to him
when the season arrives”.
These leaders have pronounced their own judgement,
and Jesus pronounces their
fate by saying “the kingdom
of God will be taken from you
and given to a people who will
produce its fruit”.
An honest appraisal of our
own responsibility before God
as individuals and members of
parishes is timely. Are we producing the fruits which God
expects of us? If not, where do
we need to work harder to
bring about a richer harvest?
12 October
Sunday 28 (A)
Matthew 22:1-14
Throughout the Bible, the
wedding feast is a frequent
symbol for the kingdom of
heaven.
In this week’s Gospel, the
king sends servants to invite
guests to come, but they refuse. The king sends out more
invitations with details of the
great banquet he has prepared,
MURRAY
Patrick James
In loving memory of our
dear and much loved father
who died October 29 1987.
Rest in peace,Dad.
We love and miss you.
Leo, Paul and Angela
but still no one will come;
they had other things to do and
they maltreated, or even killed
the king’s messengers.
More servants are sent to invite everyone they can find –
good and bad alike, until the
hall was filled.
So far so good; the parable
is easy to understand.
But then it turns to a man
who is not wearing the proper
wedding garment and who has
no explanation as to why. He
is bound hand and foot and
thrown out. We might wonder
why?
Perhaps the term ‘wedding
garment’ is a figure of speech
for a person’s good conduct –
living a virtuous life.
Examples are found elsewhere
in Scripture.
Isaiah speaks of the Lord
having “clothed me in the garments of salvation, he has
wrapped me in the cloak of integrity”.
St Paul instructs the community in Colossae (the
Colossians) to bear with one
another and forgive each
other, before adding: “Over all
these clothes, to keep them together and complete them, put
on love”.
The man without the wedding garment has not bothered
to model his life on the values
of the kingdom of heaven. He
appears without love and integrity.
19 October
Sunday 29 (A)
Matthew 22:15-21
Here we have another attempt
to trick Jesus – this time by the
Pharisees who send their disciples along with Herodians to
confront him.
This is strange. There is no
evidence that the Pharisees
had disciples of their own, and
even if they had, these would
not be expected to associate
with the Herodians!
Perhaps Matthew wants to
stress that all religious authorities were determined to get
rid of Jesus, and would resort
to any means or alliances to
achieve this.
The question they pose is
whether it is lawful for Jews to
pay taxes to the Roman
Emperor. It’s a deliberate attempt to trip Jesus up.
If he says that it is not lawful, he will be denounced to
the Romans for treason. If he
says it is lawful, he will be denounced to the people as a betrayer of the Jewish ways.
Jesus neatly evades the trap.
He asks for a coin of the type
used to pay the tax, and asks
whose head is on it, whose inscription? The head would
have been that of Tiberius
Caesar;
the
inscription
‘Tiberius Caesar, son of the
Divine Augustus’.
Such a coin would be seen
day and daily by Jews; the
problem is that it carried a reference to a false god. Tiberius
did not claim divinity for himself, but did for his father!
Graven images were strictly
forbidden to the Jews (from
the first commandment); here
is someone associated with the
Pharisees carrying a coin with
a graven image, and in the
very Temple itself. The
hypocrisy of Jesus’ questioners is revealed: they have lost
the right to challenge Jesus!
26 October
Sunday 30 (A)
Matthew 22:34-40
For the last time, the Pharisees
group together in an attempt to
disconcert Jesus. It is their
final effort to discredit the ultimate Teacher of the Law of
Moses.
They ask the much debated
question: which is the greatest
commandment of the Law,
that is: which commandment
can sum up all the others.
Jesus’ response is classic. He
doesn’t answer their question
directly, but cites two existing
commandments, foundational
to the Jewish people. He does
not combine them, but claims
that together they act as the
supports from which the
whole of the Law and the
Prophets ‘hang’.
The most important feature
about Jesus’ answer is that
unlike the Pharisees, his
summing up of the commandments is based entirely on his
own practice.
His entire life is spent in
total dedication to God with
every fibre of his being: heart,
soul and mind. This is mirrored by his total commitment
to every single human being;
by his loving every neighbour
as himself.
That commitment is demonstrated in its totality when he
renounces his very self and
takes up the cross.
For Jesus, the question
about the greatest commandment is not just a legal question: it is about his very life
and death. And so it has to be
with each one of us.
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FLOURISH • OCTOBER 2014
YOUTH NEWS
Don Bosco bicentenary
KNOWN as one of the great
apostles of youth, the 200th
anniversary of the birth of St
John Bosco is being marked
around the world – including
Glasgow.
On Saturday 25 October,
Mass will be offered in St
Andrew’s Cathedral at 1pm
in honour of the founder of
the Salesians who is still
known affectionaely as Don
Bosco.
Born in August 1815 in
Piedmont, north-west Italy,
throughout his life as a
priest he inspired parents,
teachers and young people
to be holy by being cheerful.
Archbishop Philip
Tartaglia who will preside at
the bicentenary Mass said:
“Don Bosco worked
creatively and passionately
with young people.
Brimming with enthusiasm
NET team dedicate
mission to St John Ogilvie
“The 200th anniversary of
his birth gives us another
opportunity to reflect on his
example and renew the
Church’s apostolate
especially among the
young.”
Just before his death on
31 January 1888, Don Bosco
received a letter from
Archbishop Charles Eyre of
Glasgow inviting him to send
priests to the city.
A new team of young
missionary evangelists
are settling into life in
the Archdiocese of
Glasgow, ready to devote
the next eight months
encouraging other young
people to follow Christ’s
path.
Flying high on the bonnie banks
St Patrick’s youth club
have just had a brilliant
weekend away on Loch
Lomondside.
Twenty eight of them – 10
leaders and 18 children from
S1–S4 – travelled from
Dumbarton to Ardoch in
Gartocharn for indoor and
outdoor activities.
And the whole weekend
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was completed with a Mass in
thanksgiving celebrated by the
visiting priest Fr Matthias.
Jackie Mackay, one of the
leaders, said: “It was a brilliant that all of us had the opportunity to spend the
weekend at such a fantastic
place so close to Dumbarton.
“It was exciting to see the
children grow and bond by
simply spending a weekend
together. The location, environment and staff at Ardoch
combined together to make it
memorable.
“Everyone involved, young
and old, came away having
learned something new.”
The trip was made possible
with the help of a grant from
the Ardoch Foundation.
Peter Cockill of the Ardoch
management company said:
“It is always a pleasure to host
St Patrick’s. They are a great
bunch of engaging young people. They seem to thrive on
their weekend with us and are
always appreciative. From the
Ardoch Foundation’s perspective seeing young people like
this makes it all worthwhile.”
One of the youngsters said:
“I found the sessions really interesting, learned a lot from
them and got to know some
people better. Ardoch was
awesome and the views of
Loch Lomond were spectacular.”
The group of six are part of
NET Ministries Ireland, although all hail from North
America – four from Canada
and two from the United
States.
They aim to build on the
work done by their peers who
formed the first NET team to
work in Glasgow from last
September to May this year.
Like them, they are living at
Our Holy Redeemer chapel
house in Clydebank from
where they will branch out to
secondary schools across the
diocese, delivering faith encounter days and retreats.
Aged between 18 and 23,
all are enthusiastic about living in Scotland, spending time
with young people and helping them encounter Christ as
the source of true joy and happiness.
They arrived in Glasgow on
21 September, the day after
they were commissioned at a
Mass in Stranorlar, Donegal,
where they spent six weeks in
formation.
In all, 32 young missionaries were commissioned to go
forth and spread the gospel in
Ireland and Scotland. A group
of five was sent to St Joseph’s
parish, Clarkston, with the rest
based in Ireland.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia
welcomed the Glasgow team
to the archdiocese and thanked
them for their generosity in
devoting this year to evangelising their peers.
While the team will be supported by the Archdiocese’s
youth office, priests and
parishioners in Clydebank,
and schools across the diocese, they will also be guided
by Fr John Sweeney, newly
appointed diocesan youth
chaplain.
On a visit to St Andrew’s
Cathedral, the team prayed at
the Blessed Sacrament chapel
and dedicated their mission to
the intercession of St John
Ogilvie, the 400th anniversary
of whose martyrdom will be a
feature of their year in
Glasgow.
Like Scotland, North
America has Jesuit martyr
saints who endured torture
unto death while spreading the
good news of the Gospel in
the early 17th century.
■ Pictured at the Blessed
Sacrament chapel in St
Andrew’s Cathedral, housing
the portrait of the Martyrdom
of St John Ogilvie are the
Glasgow NET team: Deirdre
O’Callaghan, Elizabeth Andry,
Michael Graul, Michael
Schmidt, Isaac Sullivan and
Bailey Regier
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Psalms 39.7
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